Seaspiracy is a documentary in which we at Sea Shepherd feature prominently, as it focuses on the sea — the place we have been watching over for more than 44 years. Through a very simple and direct approach, the filmmakers managed to tackle a complex issue that touches each of us in an intimate way. Indeed, we have all experienced what Ali put us through: we have all thought we could do something good simply by eliminating plastic from our lives. The problem is that people believe they are having an impact on the ocean world without actually knowing it.

Truly knowing the sea is essential to defending it

One of the themes of this documentary is precisely seeing the sea — seeing what is happening in the great oceans of our planet. For those of us who spend time at sea, this is something we have long since learned, and we are well aware of its destructive dimensions.

This documentary is a distillation of information and justice for all the lives of sharks, dolphins and millions of fish killed and thrown back into the sea, killed to no purpose whatsoever. This information must reach the heart of every one of us — not only to save the oceans, but also to preserve the integrity of people who can and want to change things.

It is not simply a matter of avoiding plastic or boycotting certain commercial brands. There is the fundamental issue of the marine environment and of the interdependence we have with the sea.

The criticisms of Seaspiracy

Some people — scientists, biologists and science communicators — have criticised Seaspiracy over certain data or the way some interviews are conducted. We have always been accustomed to seeing those who tell uncomfortable truths criticised by those who are sustained and paid by that very discomfort; sometimes without even realising any longer that the entire system in which some of them live — convinced they are defending the marine environment — is in reality self-serving and utterly irrelevant to the actual life or death of the ocean. Their actions and thinking remain anthropocentric and do not contemplate the necessity of living in a new biocentric civilisation in sustainable balance with other species.

We must protect the sea today! Refusing to acknowledge that we are facing the sixth mass extinction will only bring us closer to it, and the failure to change the unnecessary habit of eating fish is evidence of exactly that. We must put first the 40 per cent decline in phytoplankton over the past 100 years — phytoplankton that underpins all life on the planet. Only by preventing the collapse of wildlife can we continue to benefit from the oxygen we breathe.

We do not know the oceans as well as we think

It is by now well known that we know more about the Moon than we do about the depths of the oceans. There are data we have yet to discover. Indeed, on many occasions, organisations that defend the environment have stated that the oxygen produced by the sea is at most 50 per cent. Seaspiracy puts the figure at 85 per cent. Those who do not know the oceans cannot understand how aquatic photosynthesis contributes to the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. This figure is neither definitive nor settled. As I said, the Moon is better known to us than the ocean depths.

Criticising the documentary for the percentages it cites, rather than grasping the importance of the message, reveals where each person's priorities lie.

So, fixing one's attention on criticising the documentary for the exact percentage, rather than grasping the importance of the message, reveals where each person's priorities lie. The message is: seven tenths of our planet are blue — the sea is the fundamental source of oxygen. We must act immediately to put an end to the destruction of our own future, as a species that inhabits planet Earth.

The threat of FADs

The opening footage of Seaspiracy was shot in West Africa, where our vessel Sam Simon was operating, though I was not there at the time. We were organising the first Operation Siso in the Mediterranean. Operation Siso was launched following a report about sea turtles that, during their migrations tracked by marine biologist Monica di Blasi, were becoming fatally entangled in illegal FADs (fish aggregating devices, known locally as "cannizzi"). These devices are made of plastic and hundreds of thousands of kilometres of polypropylene that end up in the Mediterranean Sea every year.

The presence of illegal FADs is on an unimaginable scale:

• 10,000 illegal FADs in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, with an estimated 20,000 kilometres of polypropylene and hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles and jerry cans (according to publications in the Journal of Environmental Management)
• 596,518 FADs, 5,398,500 plastic bottles and jerry cans were released into the rest of the Mediterranean between 1961 and 2017.
• INN fishing (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) kills many species, enriching criminal networks and crippling the economy of small-scale artisanal fishing.

Once their moorings break, illegal FADs become deadly traps made of floating cord netting, in which seabirds, turtles, cetaceans and fish become entangled, condemned to certain death.

Before the true origin of these five million plastic jerry cans was established, their discovery on beaches was wrongly attributed to plastic pollution from rivers and shorelines, completely distorting the data. Today, however, we know it is linked to fishing.

How to overcome the sense of helplessness felt while watching Seaspiracy

Active volunteering at sea makes it possible to free oneself from the sense of powerlessness that comes from watching the documentary. For this reason, opening one's eyes — even if initially only in front of a screen — and seeing fish markets (such as, for example, the one in Tokyo) is essential in order to choose how to behave in one's own life, and I can assure you that filming them is no easy task.

Alex Cornelissen, captain and CEO of Sea Shepherd Global, went to Taiji more than twenty years ago and was part of the first group that attempted to free dolphins trapped in nets, which were facing certain death. To conceal that atrocious dolphin massacre, Japan — beyond what is shown in the documentary — also attempted to deny entry visas to our volunteers who were going there specifically to film and bring to everyone's attention the price hidden behind a dolphinarium.

The criminality hidden behind the fishing business

This urge to conceal, alongside the devastation, is the other extremely important aspect that Seaspiracy has brought to light. There is an absolute, organised criminal network with a vested economic interest in keeping all this data hidden. What they do in Taiji is hidden because they know that if the world were to see it, they would no longer be able to do it — because these are actions that have an impact on the entire ocean, not just on the people who live there.

At the markets they don't even want you to see the tuna, because they know there isn't only tuna and that much of the catch on sale is not legal. Criminality in fish markets runs rampant and profits from it, yet it is as though no one is aware of it. There are certain criminal groups that manage to control both drug trafficking and arms trafficking, as well as the shark fin trade.

Criminality in fish markets runs rampant and profits from it, yet it is as though no one is aware of it.

Civil society is moving alongside the authorities to defend its own future.

This connection with criminality emerges in a terrifying way in the documentary, because you are quite literally confronted with it head-on. It is not possible to save the entire ocean by trying to save a single species. After winning the battle against illegal Japanese whalers, we understood that we had to face something bigger: INN fishing — illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. We began a major partnership with navies, coast guards and entire governments (such as Liberia, Gabon and others), as well as with our Italian government, the Coast Guard and the Guardia di Finanza, with whom we have built a valued relationship at national level since 2014.

The drops of the sea teach us that size does not matter, but unity does.

In the Gulf of Mexico we are even engaged alongside the Mexican navy aboard our vessels. We have joined forces and created an active network of legality that stops illegality.

The Mediterranean is the most overexploited sea in the world; it is the great sea where the battle we cannot afford to lose is being fought. It is about bringing justice to our future, to the sea, and also to the people who work on these fishing vessels. We have seen people living out in the open on ships, on the decks where the fish was unloaded. At times it is even difficult to grasp the level of true slavery that people are forced to endure, and to understand that such a situation can still exist in today's world. This is why it is important for everyone to be aware of what truly lies behind a plate of fish.

The importance of protecting Liberia

Liberia may seem like a small state, yet it is part of a gulf off West Africa that is extremely important for biodiversity, of which it is a precious treasure chest. Some years ago, Japan was no longer able to go to the Antarctic Ocean to illegally hunt whales because it was found guilty during proceedings before the International Court of Justice.

The cetacean sanctuary was therefore finally free from explosive harpoons, and for this reason our captain Peter Hammarstedt headed to the Antarctic zone in pursuit of the most infamous illegal fishing vessel in the world, the Thunder. And so began the longest chase in history, after it was discovered with a drift net 72 kilometres long, which was confiscated. After 111 days of pursuit at sea, the poacher made it as far as the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, where the fishing vessel scuttled itself, sinking beneath the waves. This episode makes us realise that it was precisely they who told us that this was the least policed area in the world — and not by chance, as it was an area frequented by vast numbers of tuna passing through on their migration routes. They could have gone anywhere to sink the vessel, but they chose that very spot because they felt safe — confident that no one would ever reach them there. And it was precisely there that we understood that this was the area from which to begin a battle that today extends across many zones. Liberia is an earthly paradise and would truly need everything to remain untouched. At present, the collaboration with Sea Shepherd on the part of the government is ongoing and the respect is mutual.

A great many nations have decided to protect their own biodiversity because they have understood that it is the shield that will defend us in the future, that will allow us to survive. We are talking about survival, about moving towards the total extinction of an entire species.